 And here's another event report! Will we get sick of constantly going to pinball events? Probably not! We've already been to three over the last two months, so what's one more? Besides, this is the one pinball event I look forward to the most every year - Pinfest! This year, we decided to be a little more organised than normal by finalising repairs to machines early and packing for the event a few days before. That didn't quite work out, as we were still hurriedly finishing repairs on the Friday morning, a few hours before we left. It always seems like there's an issue or two that pop up at the most inopportune time, but that's pinball!
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 Another pop culture show? You bet! This one was a big one. CollectFest is a new show for all things collectable, whether it be collectable cards (Pokemon, Magic, etc.), comics, action figures, coins, stamps, video games, or anything in between. It's exciting whenever a new collectables show appears as it shows how much demand there is for these pop culture events around Australia. CollectFest had done shows in Brisbane and Melbourne, so Fiona and I put out hands up to contribute some pinball machines to the Sydney event in Darling Harbour to round-out their Experience offerings. We were excited about this because the CollectFest team were really keen on the retro vibe of an arcade, which is exactly what we wanted to give to patrons of the show.  I'm writing this after a monster of a Saturday. I just got up after a 12 hour sleep and I still feel tired! I'm smashed because Fiona and I spent yesterday at the Australian Collectables Expo (also known as the Campbelltown Card Show), and we spent the couple of days prior to that getting ready for it. Only a week after our appearance at TCXPO, we decided to contribute to this show because it was local (only ten minutes away from home!) and because the van was already half-loaded with the machines and parts from the last show, so loading up wouldn't be too difficult! And, of course, it helps us in our mission to spread "pinball to the people".  Trading cards? What's that got to do with pinball? Well, not much. However, I like to take any opportunity I can to spread the joy of pinball around. So whenever a pinball or pop culture-related expo comes around, I like to offer my services as a "Pinball Advocate" and bring some machines for the public to experience for the first time, or enjoy for the thousandth time, whatever the case may be. TCXPO is the latest venture of Amy from Collector Con, who organises several pop culture events throughout the year. It was on for the first time on Sunday, and it's awesome to be a part of an inaugural show!  We've been here before! Last time I wrote about repairs to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT, Data East, 1991), I was discussing a restoration I performed for a customer. This machine was a little different. I bought it after doing some repairs for its previous owner. They decided to move and didn't want to move the game with them, so they sold it to me instead. It's a weird experience to start repairing a game for somebody and then finish repairing it for yourself. Suddenly you're not constrained by time frames or repair budgets, and you can really take the time to make sure the game is playing as well as it can be. You can also take the time to make any improvements or modifications that you want. And with all of the extra features I planned to install, I needed a lot more time than most people can justify in a regular service call. But what "extra features" am I referring to? |
✍️ BlogHere you will find logs of our pinball and arcade machine restorations, repairs, discussion about general pinball and arcade topics, as well as recounts of our random pinball adventures. All entries on this blog are written by Alexander Visotin, unless otherwise indicated. Check back regularly for updates! Blog UpdatesArchives
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Running this website is a hobby for me (just like pinball!). I like being able to show off my restoration work so everyone can learn from it and potentially fix their own machines. If you enjoy reading the site's content or it has been helpful to you, please consider donating to offset some of the website's operating costs. |
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